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Parties sacrifice nationhood for political gain
Senior politician Theo L
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Senior politician Theo L. Sambuaga looked uneasy when asked why his Golkar Party, which boasts a nationalist platform, voted for the controversial pornography bill.
“Personally, I don’t agree with the bill as it endangers our national unity. But what can I do? The majority said it was in the party’s interests,” he said Saturday.
He skipped the House of Representatives’ plenary session to pass the bill last Thursday.
Theo hails from the predominantly Christian province of North Sulawesi, which together with predominantly Hindu Bali and predominantly Christian Papua officially reject the bill.
The House endorsed the bill regardless of the provinces’ opposition and the boycott of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Prosperous Peace Party (PDS).
The two parties walked out of the plenary session in a show of protest against the House majority, which they said had put national integration and pluralism at stake for giving their fiat.
Many legislators have said Golkar was instrumental in blocking the PDI-P’s demand for the bill’s passage to be delayed.
A professor in politics at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, said Golkar’s interest in supporting the bill was obviously to woo Muslim voters ahead of the 2009 elections. A number of recent surveys have shown Golkar has fallen behind the PDI-P.
While the move sacrifices Golkar’s founding values for short-term political gains, it will not necessarily bear the fruits the party’s elites expected, Ikrar said.
“I don’t really understand Golkar’s calculations. They are afraid Muslim voters will desert them if they voted against the bill. But now, moderate Muslims and the party’s constituents in the provinces that reject the bill may leave them,” Ikrar said.
As if confirming it was all for the elections, Hakim Sorimuda Pohan of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party asked people not to vote for the PDI-P and the PDS because of their opposition to the bill.
“People must be aware now who they should vote for. They must not vote for the PDI-P and the PDS, which support pornography,” he said.
Former Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Maarif, who was recently awarded the Magsasay Award for his pluralism stance, said he believed the pornography bill would not threaten pluralism in the country.
Syofiardi Bachyul Jb contributed to this story from Padang.
